


The Jasmine Dragons

by MadameFluffnStuff



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Azula (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Azula (Avatar) Redemption, Big Brother Zuko (Avatar), Dragons, Family Fluff, Fire Nation Royal Family, Firebending & Firebenders, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Good Azula (Avatar), Headcanon, Hurt/Comfort, Iroh (Avatar) loves Tea, Iroh's family is tiny and broken but good, Post-Avatar: The Last Airbender, Post-Episode: s03e13 Firebending Masters, Protective Azula (Avatar), Protective Iroh (Avatar), Protective Zuko (Avatar), Zuko (Avatar) Needs a Hug, little sister azula
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:49:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27069652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadameFluffnStuff/pseuds/MadameFluffnStuff
Summary: When Uncle Iroh said in TLOK that he chose to move on into the Spirit World, I think he did so by climbing onto the back of a lionturtle…
Relationships: Azula & Fire Nation Royal Family (Avatar), Azula & Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Fire Nation Royal Family & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 37





	The Jasmine Dragons

**Author's Note:**

> This started as a little headcanon post on Tumblr (@the-last-cuddlebender), but I love Iroh and his family too much, I guess.

The sun is setting in the West when the lionturtle speaks to him. 

“I have heard your wish. I can help you face the next step of your journey. But only if you are ready.” 

Iroh shares a cup of jasmine tea with Zuko and beats his nephew’s butt at Pai Sho one last time. He doesn’t tell him that he’s going. Zuko doesn’t sense anything strange, either, because his uncle always exudes love like his very next minute of life will be taken from him. 

Azula finds Iroh before he finds her. Nothing happens in the Palace without her knowing. She looks at her Uncle like she knows more about what is to happen than he does. She hugs him and says nothing, and she holds him for a few seconds longer than Iroh thought her capable of. 

Then the moment is gone, Azula squares her shoulders, and Iroh’s niece strides away towards the company awaiting her in the gardens. 

Iroh gets on the lionturtle’s back (it’s the water one, by the way. The element of family and change, and the element that Iroh so closely studied after his son was killed). He glances back to see his mortal coil looking as if asleep and smiling. 

When Iroh turns around to face his new world, he is a little sad, though. In fact, his heart breaks and cries. 

An old friend is there to greet him—the lionturtle is gone, now, and Iroh is standing in a mountain’s valley. Little tears escape him as he pets the nose of the massive, purring blue dragon. 

But then the Firebending Master, now a spirit, touches a whisker to Iroh’s brow. 

He shows Iroh his red-scaled mate, also an old friend, curled up and at peace so deep in the secret passages of their cave that she practically sleeps on the heart of the earth. She purrs in her half-empty nest, and she keeps one eye open to watch her two hatchlings play and tussle about the other half of her nest. The young dragons roll in the imprint that their ancient father had left, and the smooth dip of stone smells like something familiar and safe even though they never met him. 

But then the mothering red dragon moves, showing Iroh something else. And Iroh cries a little harder and is so overcome with joy that it fills him to the brim, curls into a smile, and spills over into a laugh. 

The ancient blue dragon relishes his old friend’s happiness and shows him through his vision, again, the hoard of golden eggs clutched in an alcove behind his old nest. The alcove is covered walls and floor with bushes blooming small white flowers (that cradle the eggs like a bed), and crystals like those used in the Earth Kingdom—though these are gold teetering on white—line the alcove’s ceiling and bathe the bushes and eggs with light like the crystals were each a tiny sun. 

Iroh laughs so hard that he would have stopped breathing if he weren’t a spirit, now, when, in the vision, the ancient red dragon turns and puffs a small gust of cinders over the bushes. Her heated breath hardly disturbs a leaf, and she settles to sleep as the faint smell of burning jasmine fills the cave.

...Zuko, much like his Uncle had once done, goes to the masters as he grieves his loss. 

The Sun Warriors play the horn and drums, and Zuko doesn’t know what the hell to think when two dragons barely bigger than housecats emerge from the massive caves. 

The tiny dragons circle him like vultures (not quite old enough to fly) and trip over feet they have yet to grow into as they attempt to dance. 

The blue, keen and calculating for its young age, sits like the statues outside the Palace. She nods and blows a ring of smoke to voice her approval of him, and she puffs her chest and looks at Zuko like she expected him to grovel his thanks for her giving him a judgment at all. 

The red circles a second more, cocks his head, and then jumps and tries to spit a stream of fire. His form is terrible, and he would have landed flat on his back if Zuko didn’t drop to his knee and catch him. The dragon’s golden eyes narrow like he’s smiling, and Zuko swears he really is. (The blue huffs and growls like she is muttering her irritation.) 

The stone bridge shakes as the red Master, massive and looming and ancient, appears at the mouth of her cave. She gives Zuko a look, cocks her head, and puffs an approving ring of smoke just like the little blue dragon had. She growls something that sounds like a purr and shakes Zuko to the bone. The rolling bass of the sound is a landslide trembling his marrow, and the blue, her nose and tail high in the air, trots to her mother. 

But then the blue pauses, frozen for a second. 

She zooms like she is made of water up Zuko’s pants and tunic, and she throws herself over her brother. Zuko holds them both against his chest, and their weight reminds him of Bumi and baby Kya (who he had visited not even a week before). 

The blue nuzzles her brother like she was both saying hello after living a lifetime apart from him and saying goodbye forever.

The red flinches as though surprised, but he returns the gesture with twice as much urgency and just as loud of a purr. 

Then the moment is gone, the blue dragon nips the red’s ear as if to remind him of the chain of command, and she shakes off her fall of demeanor. She sticks her nose back in the air like royalty, and she trots to her mother awaiting her in the cave. 

The ancient red Master rolls her eyes as much as a dragon can, and she cuddles the little blue close. She gives Zuko a long look that sinks into the deepest parts of him and flips through the pages of his soul. 

The little red dragon, purring, clings to Zuko’s tunic. His mother looks sad but proud as she and the little blue disappear back into the cave. 

Ancient eyes that have witnessed a thousand lifetimes gleam through the black at Zuko. They glint like sunlight hitting gold coins and shuffle through a rainbow of different emotions as if to show him something. 

“...I understand.” 

The orbs of gold blink and disappear. 

Zuko smiles and holds his dragon like he was his inner fire made scaly flesh, and he tries not to trip or cry as he descends the stairs. 

(His dragon smells so much like jasmine tea that Zuko’s heart doesn’t know whether to jump for joy or stop beating altogether.) 

(Azula is there to greet him when Zuko steps off his ship. She doesn’t look surprised, and the little red dragon doesn’t shy away from her hand.) 

(Druk makes his nest in the bushes blooming small white flowers near the turtleduck pond.) 

(Ursa keeps him in the corner of her eye when she sits in the garden to read. She awaits the company soon to join her. Druk pads the space in the bush beside him like he is doing the same.) 

(Azula is nothing if not patient.) 

(“...I know.”) 

(And Azula, like her brother, struggles not to trip as she descends the stairs with the little blue curled and clinging to her chest.) 

(But Azula, unlike Zuko, lets herself cry.) 

(Her heart decides to beat like her next minute of life would be taken from her.) 

(Neither Azula nor Zuko—nor Ursa, especially—ever move the empty fourth seat at the table where they play Pai Sho.) 

(Druk and Riyu curl up, winding over each other like a metal cable braided together, in the imprint their Flame-Brother’s and Flame-Sister’s father—not their sire—had left, and the smooth dip of wood smells like something familiar and safe even though they had never met him.) 

(Ursa lights a gentle fire and brews their tea.)

(They all welcome the lazy fuzz simmering just beneath their skin that threatens them with sleep as the smell of steaming jasmine fills the gardens.)

**Author's Note:**

> Riyu = "reason"...because Azula found her drive/purpose (and her dragon) when she visited the Firebending Master


End file.
